Mattia Jona La Portantina +39 02 8053315 mattjona@mattiajona.com


 
LUIGI CONCONI
(Milan 1852 - 1917)
RITRATTO DI GIUSEPPE BRENTANO (Portrait of the architect Giuseppe Brentano), before 1889

Etching, (acquaforte monotipata), before 1889; a fine impression, richly and skillfully printed with plate tone, on thick wove paper. Signed LConconi in the film of ink left in the plate in wiping. Signed with the monogram LC in pencil on the bottom margin. With large margins,  in fine condition. To the platemark 163 x 78 mm, the entire sheet measuring 464 x 282 mm. See M. Bianchi, G. Ginex, Luigi Conconi incisore, Milan, 1994; cat. no. 28.

Conconi studied architecture at the Accademia di Brera and the Politecnico di Milano. He came into contact with members of the literary and artistic circles of the Scapigliatura – the Italian equivalent of the French Bohème– notably Tranquillo Cremona and Daniele Ranzoni, both of whom influenced his early paintings. In the 1880s Conconi moved from the Realism of Scapigliatura toward Symbolism. The awards he received in Paris in 1900 and Munich in 1913 led to his international recognition.
Conconi, who personally saw to the production of virtually all his plates, was the leading exponent in Lombardy of Acquaforte monotipata. This technique involved the artist drawing directly onto the ink covering the plate, prior to pulling the impression. In this way each resultant print has different characteristics.